Wednesday, December 20, 2006

"Though we may work for potential love or fame, applause for our old work is nothing if we are not making new poems."I found this in "Writing Poems," an essay published in an out-of-print gem called Creativity and the Writing Process, edited by Olivia Bertagnolli and Jeff Rackham. It was required by my undergraduate Creative Writing prof, Bob Flanagan, and speaks to me now more than ever.

I found the above passage underlined, and it's extremely apt for me today (I will not say why precisely, Dear Reader).

Hall goes on to say:

"When we are not in the midst of working, applause is almost a curse; it is a reminder that we are no longer the person who did the old work... the pleasure of writing the poetry is one-fiftieth in the praise, and the rest in the act of making a metaphor."

It is time to do the work: begin now, little by little throughout these bumpy holidaze, and focus more and more, create more space in the new year for the work. The work, the work, the work.

Welspoken Nobody

About Me

Amy Lemmon is the author of two poetry collections: Fine Motor (Sow’s Ear Poetry Review Press,
2008) and Saint Nobody (Red Hen Press,
2009). Her work has appeared in The Best American Poetry, Rolling
Stone,New Letters,Prairie Schooner, Verse, Court Green, The
Journal, Barrow Street, and many other magazines and anthologies. She is co-author, with Denise Duhamel, of the poetry chapbooks ABBA: The Poems (Coconut Books, 2010) and Enjoy Hot or Iced: Poems in Conversation and a Conversation (Slapering Hol Press, 2011). Amy
holds a PhD in English/Creative Writing from the University of Cincinnati. She
is Professor of English & Communication Studies at the Fashion Institute of Technology and lives
with her two children in Astoria, Queens.